Gary Oldman is the voice of a deadly AI house in the new Netflix thriller ‘Tau’

After winning an Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, you might assume Gary Oldman would get all pompous. “Oh no darling, I won’t take bit parts any more. Didn’t you hear? I’m an Oscar winner!”

But, in fact, it turns out Gary’s still not above playing an artificial intelligence-controlled house in a wacky/scary Netflix movie.

The British actor will be voicing Tau in the new film, set to be released on Netflix UK on 29 June.

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Tau follows a once street-smart grifter, Julia (It Follows’ Maika Monroe) who is the latest victim kidnapped and held captive in a fatal experiment. The only thing standing in the way of her freedom is Tau (voiced by Gary Oldman), an advanced artificial intelligence developed by Alex (Game of Thrones’ Ed Skrein), her captor. Tau is armed with a battalion of drones that automate a futuristic smart house. Tau’s potential is only limited by his understanding of the world he exists in, but Tau is ready for more. Julia, showing resourcefulness and courage, must race against time to bridge the boundaries between man and machine, connect to Tau and win her freedom before she suffers the same fate as the previous subjects.

Directed by Federico D’Alessandro in his first feature film, Tau seems to bear a remarkable resemblance to the sentient computer HAL in that other excellent movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The streaming service doesn’t exactly have the strongest track record when it comes to big budget sci-fi films (we’re looking at you Bright, Altered Carbon and The Cloverfield Paradox) but with Oldman and Maika Monroe on board, we’ve got high hopes this time around.